June 1, 2010
Today we went to Lori region. There were beautiful mountains, canyons, forests and its famous river Tebed. Lori is a region of Armenia very close to the border of Georgia. On the way to Lori we went through the town of Spidag which had suffered from the huge earthquake on December 7th, 1988. During the earthquake 25,000 people died. After the earthquake there was a new church that was built in Spidag. A rich man who owns many casinos in Las Vegas sent one-million dollars to help rebuild the city. Lori is the most beautiful region in Armenia. All of the houses had red roofs.
One of the important places we visited in Lori was Hovhannes Toumanian’s home/museum. It was really interesting and very big. It was also made of wood, rocky and old fashioned. The house was half in the ground. He was born in that house 141 years ago. He said that the nature in Lori was beautiful and the talent that he had was given by God and Nature. He started writing at 11 years old which is exactly our age! In his home the oven that he used to make his bread is made out of stone. They didn’t make lavash because it was too humid they only made madnakash. Hovhannes Toumanian’s family would only eat meat on special occasions. He always went to the fields and watched the birds because he adored them. Hovhannes Toumanian had 7 siblings 4 brothers and 3 sisters and he is the oldest one. He was also in the dynasty of Vartan Mamigonian. His parents’ names were Vahan and Nvart, his sisters names were Osana, Isgouhi, and Asdghig. Hovhannes Toumanian’s dad was the town priest and he was very smart and educated. When he was young he used to listen to the stories that the elders used to tell and he wrote his stories based from what he had heard. He wrote many books and poems. His first book was published in 1890, in Moscow. One of his books turned to two movies. His books were translated in 50 different languages.
For lunch we went to a restaurant in a five star hotel. Almost everybody loved the “Ishkhanatzoog”. Outside, was pretty big and we played games together. After that, we headed in the arcade, and from the window you could see the pool and the small jacuzzi next to it. Then, we went to the bus and started on to Haghpat monastery.
We went to Haghpat. It was very beautiful inside and outside. There were many different designs on all of the windows and the walls. Some of the writing on the walls was painted with Vortan Garmir. It was pretty cool and the designs on the top were very complicated. The monastery was built by Queen Khosrovanoush and King Ashod III (also known as Ashod Voghormadz because he was very nice and helpful to his people). They built the church in honor of their sons, Smpad and Kourken. Their images were carved on the top of the church wall, holding the model of the church.
After Haghpat, we went to Sanahin monastery. Sanahin means that it was older than Haghpat. The priests in Haghpat were jealous because they saw that Sanahin was an older church so, the Sanahin people said “sa nraneetz heen a” which means this is older than the other, and that’s how the monastery was named.
On the way back, we played some fun games on the bus, like “why and because” and we sang lots of songs. Although it was a long day, we had a lot of fun. We made it to Yerevan at 10:30 and had a late dinner of wings, pizza and pasta at Square One Restaurant near the Republic Square then walked to our Hotel.
By Tatiana Movsesian and Sarine Ashjian